Insane Cafe 4: The Insane Frontier

[Serris]

(Endless Wall)

The explosion was so loud that it was audible even at the Endless Wall.

Tyrell awoke with a start. "What was that!?" he demanded.

Karis carefully made her way to one of the many parapets on the wall. She narrowed her eyes and watched as the column of incandescent smoke and ash rose into the sky. "It's Champa. But it doesn't have any active volcanoes..."

"Well now it does." Tyrell looked out over Weyard. "I hope we're not atop a volcano," he added.
 
----------------------

(Tonfon)

The volcano was far away enough that the miners had plenty of time to set up a lava break.

The miners quickly out their equipment and got to work tearing down structures. As they couldn't get their heavy equipment in time, all they had were hand carried tools. The next group that would would arrive later tomorrow would have additional miners and volunteers along heavy equipment.

That being said, they were using drills, jackhammers and explosives to demolish the unsafe structures.

[Nick22]

tiger, gabumon and gabumon helped knock down damaged buildings., while the large dragons simply movee the ones who were undamaged away. the injured were being treated in the center of town in make shift hospitals. Wargreywomon and Dulcy flew  around the city picking out survivors from the rubble anmd in some cases knocking down the ruined homes themselves.
_
 Endkess Wall
_ we're not, as far as I can tell ' Old Spyro said " but i dont think we should stay here for too long. We need to reach the ascent  and soon. we need to know what is the safest route to reach the sanctum."

[Serris]

(Endless Wall)

"This is the only route," Tyrell replied.

Ms. Swimmer had went to sleep and now Karis was standing watch. Ms. Swimmer had used a staff to temporarily assemble the rubble into something like small cave that she could sleep in.

----------------------

(Tonfon)

As the earthmoving equipment had not yet arrived, the miners were simply demolishing unsafe buildings and helping rescue survivors that had been buried under the rubble. Fortunately, the miners had arrived with spotlight drones that flitted about, illuminating the work sites as well as the improvised hospital.

[Nick22]

endless wall
-
 one , by one, the group went to sleep, huddled together for warmth.' night guys ' old spyro said, as he, and skylands huddled together.  tigeress and cynder snuggled together, tired after their long day of climbing the tower. agumon sgttayed up. he would take the next watch from Karis.
_
 scooby gathered his team together after several hours of searching. ' alroioght we've explored nearly the entire city ' scooby said ' and it looks like these stone buildings are in the best shape. we've knocked down dozens of buildings, and i think its time we call a halt for tonight and get a few hours of sleep.  beds are first come, first serve basis.' ' i'll bunk with agumina ' gabuna offered. ' whoever wwants to bunk together, thats fine.' dixie said. dulcy followed them into what apparently had been a courthouse, as the judges bench was visible in a corner. '
_

[tempestwheel]

"We'll bunk together," Kiara said to Kovu, "At least this place is roomy......" She used her armor's powers to provide the group with water if they needed drinks or just to cool down.

She looked at her mate. "It was a good call using your fire powers to completely turn some of those places into pure ash," she commended.

[Serris]

(Spire of Winter)

As "day" broke around Winterville, the refugees began to awake and start their day. Small little cooking fires dotted Winterville Park and its artificial beach,

Dr. Kerzach was the first to arrive at the outdoor kitchen. The rice porridge had all been eaten so he had to start cooking up a batch immediately. He quickly grabbed a shovel and began scooping the rice into a massive pot.

----------------------------

(Endless Wall, Weyard)

As day broke over Weyard, the planet of Vaalbara loomed overhead, dominating the skies.

The stone cave wobbled for a moment before it disassembled itself and Ms. Swimmer emerged. "Good morning everyone," she said.

[Nick22]

thanks dear' Kovu said ' the racers sure helped with that ' he yawned. showing his teeth. scooby created pillows for everyone to rest their heads on." speaking of that, how did you get so good at driving those things/" he asked.
-
 tiger and gabumon took a bench near the front while young spyro grabbed a chair. ratchet and Angela were o the other side of room, along with stitch and angel. kopa snuggled up to vitanion thier bench, as scooby passed around pillows, and dixie gave out blankets.' night everyone.
_
 sima and Vushu had stopped at the mawashii store where you could order a mawashii in any colors you wanted. ' i'd like one in black and brown with just a touch of green. " make mine purple' vushu said to the store owner. ' they are for our friends ' she explained. 'it will take a day or so to make them.' the owner said. ' we will let you know when they are ready.
_
mona had set up a food stand near the  forest refugee camp, and was selling mawashii hot dogs  and drinks for a dollar. each of the 4 kids would get a quarter of the money, once they had sold everything and counted up  everything. ' This was Ollies idea" Flash said as she tossed a pair of huge hot dogs onto a small grill.

[Serris]

(Weyard)

Ms. Swimmer's stomach growled. "Do we have any food?"

"Well, we have some Kaocho dumplings from Tonfon," Tyrell said as he opened his pack and started digging through it.

Ms. Swimmer, aware that she was technically a non-magical creature politely declined them. "I'll go forage for some breakfast," she said.

----------------

(Spire of Winter)

"Stripetail!" Captain Carson's voice crackled over the Seer's radio. "The sensors are detecting strong seismic activity in Tonfon as well as near Kaocho! There have also been reports from the crew at Tonfon have been two volcanoes erupting. And one is near Tonfon. I am sending over additional workers along with heavy equipment to assist in diversion of lava flows.

[Nick22]

i'll take anything you have ' tigress said, looking at the dum,plings. " whats in them?' she asked of curiosity. " give us some too. Skylands, Spyro and Warfang said.
_ we will be sending groups to those areas ' Stripetail said ' the eruptions will only get worse with each passing hour. the planet is getting squeezed by the incoming planet, and the strain is forcing all sorts of activity as the planets insides heat up enormously.  this planet will soon be unlivable. I am headed to passaj to forge some new weapons, including one for you, Captain. view it as a token of my esteem, or if you prefer, a bonus, for your performance so far."
_
 As the volcanoes erupted and oozed lava, the lava began to rise and form itself into large  golem like creatures that were at least 10 feet tall. the eyes of the creatures glowed bright blue and each passing second, more of them came out of the lava and began walking down the volcano towards the nearest city- Tonfon.

[tempestwheel]

At the kid's stand, they had thought of a new way to make money.

"You're gonna what?" Ollie asked Oliver.

"I'll challenge anyone who wants to an eating contest with a hotdog. If I can eat one faster, we'll gain an extra 10 dollars."

"But it looks like a really large amount of people want to do this challenge, could you handle it?"

"Oh he can," Tiger said confidently, "Oliver may be a kitten, but he has the appetite of a Japanese movie monster. Right Kitty?"

[Nick22]

definitely' kitty smiled ' there was this one time, when Dixie, Arlene and I had brought him with us on a tour of Germany, and they had this kringle eating contest. kringe is, well sorta like a  cross between a cookie and cake. ' and there was loads of it. there was a local witch there who picked out a few kids to test a ' stomach grow' spell on, which would allow kids to eat faster and eat much more, without passing out. half the kids were given the spell, half were not. and so, they had an eating contest with a bell in front off each kid that the kid would ring when he could not eat any more. now oliver was one of those who had been given the spell, and my stars, did he eat like an elephant. kringe adfter kringle disappeared down his gut in minutes, i mean he was giving Scooby and tiger runs for their money, and those two are pros at eating. well, after awhile the normal kids rang out, the most they had eaten was 6 kringle. and eventually the kids that had been gven it ran out, after 20 kringle. soon it was down to oliver and one other kid. 40 kringle, 50 kringle, 60 kringle. finally the other kid rang out after 72 kringle. oliver ate until they ran out of kringle, 110 in all. So when I say Oliver can beat just about anyone in a hot dog contest, you can believe it."
- the first customer bought a hot dog and accepted the challenge. " lets see how fast you can eat kid" said the bull looking down at the kitten.
_
 Go Oliver' Mona cheered ' i want to buy an ice cream truck so we can go around giving out ice cream! She grinned.

[Serris]

(Endless Wall, Weyard)

Ms. Swimmer returned with some apples she had picked off a tree on the wall. "It's not the best, but it'll do." She passed the apples out to the group.

Tyrell shrugged. "Dunno. Mine's has rice, peanuts, salted eggs and mung beans."

"Mine's has chicken," Karis replied. "Help yourselves." She gestured to the pack.

--------------------

(Tonfon, Weyard)

Several shuttles landed in the town square and unloaded their cargo of workers. Several of them drove heavy equipment out from the large cargo shuttles while others unloaded dull white slabs that looked like hull plating from a starship.

"Ready for some action, Spike?" one of the miners said to the small dragon.

--------------------

(Spire of Winter)

Captain Carson was poring over the data from the seismic probes she had left around parts of Weyard. She radioed Stripetail upon hearing that he was heading to Passaj.

"Stripetail," she said. "Passaj is crossed by several fault lines. I recommend using caution as I am detecting seismic activity present. Also, I am honored that you chose to forge a weapon for me. Personally, swords are not my choice of weapon but keeping with tradition, the captain of a ship always has a sword at their side."

[Nick22]

I'll take the chicken ones' Skylands said, reaching into the pack and pulling out 4 dumplings. tigress, Warfang and spyro took one each- they were quite large, and turned out to be very tasty. ' well, guys i suggest we get moving. we dont have much time to  get through the Ascent- we have less than 4 days before this planet gets ripped to pieces.' Agumon said as he warpdigivolved to Wargreymon
_
 gabumon warpdigivolved to Metalgarurumon and began flying over the city, which had been cleared of most of its damaged buildings. in the distance, fires where burning, as lava reached the vegetation below' we've got fires over to the West!" hevcalled down to the workers emptying the shuttles, need to find a way to channel the flow into some nearby water to cool it down. or i could use my Ice wolf Claw attack, that usually gets results ' a smirk came over his face, and below him wargreywomon,  came into view followed by racers piloted by dixie with Gabuna in the Side car. Stitch(with Angel as his passenger) and Kopa, who was   casting earth spells to seal up cracks in the earth. ' we've got  big cracks in the ground in the north side of town  Wargreywomon said as she flew up to metalGarurumon " we also have lava racing towards us that needs to be frozen. 'he replied well i dont have any natural freezing attacks. i'm a fireball gal, after all.' said the female Mega. ' Dulcy, Korin and Samia were helping care for the injured, and Scooby and Tiger wee staying on the North side, trying fill opening in the ground with debris or magic.
_
 Passaj
 Understood captain, I'll be careful' stripetail said. ' i didnt get to where i am today by not taking precautions. And time is very much against us at this point, We need to reach the Lens within the next two days if we are going to steer Vaalbara away in time. and..' he smiled " i know you'd prefer something like a blaster or a gun, but the cloest thing in magicdom to that is a staff. Guns are more technology than magic after all" he looked aroun the empty city, it was rather errie listening to the echos of the footsteps his feet made as he walked arouind the city. Stripetail's staff glowed slightly

[Serris]

(Passaj, Weyard)

Passaj itself had been thoroughly evacuated. Rumbles and mild tremors hinted at the seismic activity underfoot. One of the seismic monitoring stations was at the entrance of the underground city.

Even without anyone present, pebbles of zol still floated up from the current of air that rose up through the central tunnel of the town's entrance that led to the mines underneath Passaj.

----------------------

(Spire of Winter)

"Well, Seer," Captain Carson said as she folded her hands. "A sword is the traditional symbol of authority for a ship's captain. I shall hang it in the bridge as a symbol of our friendship."

The probes that Captain Carson had dispatched to help keep tabs on the group in Tonfon picked up something some large, lumbering creatures heading towards Tonfon. She hastily radioed the group present there.

"Attention! We have large creatures heading your way. Be prepared for hostilities."

----------------------

(Endless Wall, Weyard)

"Let's finish up and head to the ascent before we all get screwed!" Tyrell exclaimed. He practically shoved the dumpling he had down his mouth and got up.

Ms. Swimmer was finishing up her fourth apple. She looked skywards and gasped. Vaalbara was close enough that the clouds some of the larger surface features could be made out.

----------------------

(West Tonfon, Weyard)

The Vaalbaran diplomat-scientists were carrying what looked like laser rifles but instead of setting fire to whatever they were aimed at, their target was immediately covered with a thin coat of frost. They were working with a team of armored Spirarian personnel who were using using water hoses to try put out the fires.

"Uh guys," a miner said as he saw something huge that peeked over the trees approaching from the south. "We might have a problem."

----------------------

(North Tonfon, Weyard)

The lava was slowly but steadily creeping towards the city. Some additional Vaalbaran volunteers armed with the freezing laser rifles were using them to delay the lava flow as the Spirarian miners used bulldozers and cranes to build lava walls with the pieces of starship hull plating. The ceramic used was extremely heat resistant and it was hoped they'd halt the lava flows enough.

[tempestwheel]

"He's really doing it," Ollie remarked, impressed as Oliver began to eat the hot dogs at an extremely rapid pace.

Even when the challenger was a much more voracious creature like a panda, Oliver's ability to eat never slowed down even as his belly got bigger.

"So tasty," he grinned between bites, the others competing looked impressed at Arlene's son's appetite.

[Nick22]

Paasaj
the light from stripetails staff reflected off of the zol as he walked on down the main street. it was sorta like snow, except green and falling upwards. it was , actually, and impressive sight, and the wizard paused a few moments to take in the scene.  the rumblings of the activity beneath him soon reminded him that time was of the essence and he continued making his towards the forge. in his robes he carried the two broken blades nick had given him to reforge,  and he would use available material- such as zol, to create others.
_
 Endless Wall
 Tigress Skylands and Warfang quickly wolfed down their dumplings, and followed Tyrell out onto the wall. the mountain, and the wall climbed up ahead of them. there had been parapets here once, but looking down one could clearly see that they had collapsed, likely as a result of the recent meteor bombardment Waregreymon hovered in the air, gazing at the sprawling and legthy course ahead. ' hope those dumplings wre filiing girls we wont stop until we reach the top of the wall, and that will likely take us hours to do.
_
  West tonfion.
 the enormous fire golen was at least 30 feet tall, and  its eyes were  a fiery . every step it took left a big imprint on the ground, filled with boiling lava it  towered above the miners  which now stood in its way it stared down ant them in a mixture of suprise and annoyance
 North tonfon
 Kopa Tiger , Kovu and vitani all tried the best they could to stop this part of the city from completely falling to pieces.  it was long, grueling work, wghever one patch of ground was sealed in by a cover of ice or hardened into place by kovu's flames, another took its place.
_
 lava gopolems began puring out of the lava that making its way to North tonfon. while the barriers might hold up against flowing lava, a sentient lava creature as another matter entirely.
-
 ratchet and angela raced around on their speeder, with angela  holding a freze gun in her paws, and firing at any cracks that might need filling.
_
 so much for a nice break" gabuna said as dixie drove the pair around the city ' part of the job unfortunately.

[Serris]

(West Tonfon, Weyard)

Several of the miners turned their water cannons onto the lava golem. Another hastily called for backup from the Spire of Winter.

One of the Vaalbarans aimed its freezing laser rifle at the puddles of lava the creature left behind. Soon, a black patch of obsidian coated with frost appeared in the lava's place.

-------------

(North Tonfon, Weyard)

Explosions ripped through the air as a deep trench was blasted out in an attempt to divert the lava into the ocean.

Even so, the Vaalbarans kept up a furious barrage with their freezing laser cannons to try and halt the golem.

-------------

(Endless Wall, Weyard)

Indeed, there was actually a sizable meteor crater that blocked off the path. Karis looked at the narrow ledge that remained undamaged and the sheer drop that awaited anyone unlucky enough to fall.

"Looks like we'll have to make a bridge of some sort," she said. She looked at the narrow ledge to the right of the rather deep crater. "Unless we feel like walking along that."

Tyrell backed away from the ledge. "No."

"Allow me." Ms. Swimmer tapped her staff on the ground and pointed it at the crater. Almost immediately, the rubble and the debris hovered in the air and quickly formed a crude, but stable rock bridge.

[Nick22]

Endlass wall
 We can just fly over it '  Warfang said lookiing at the crater.' its pretty big though. ' we could carry those of us who cant fly.' I prefer to walk, thanks' Tigeress said. ' you've ridden on me before ' Cynder-W pointed out. " i even bought a saddle for you to   hang on to. "  ' she motioned to the saddle on her back. "or you could ride on skylands.' Skylands nodded and smiled at Tigress " Or are you afraid of flying? ' the purple skylander smirked. ' no. i'm not afraid. tell you what . i'll fly on warfang to the ascent, and on you on the way back. Deal?" Tigeress offered ' sure. just so you know, on Cynder Airlines, I pick out the passengers food' Skylands grinned. ' So whatever I eat , you eat. ' as long as its meat. I'm fine with that' Tigress said.
 come on girls " wargreymon said, motioning as he flew over the crater. Tigeress climbed on to warfang, who then took flight, followed by Skylands. spyro was last of the flying members of the group to be airborne. the 4 of them looked down at the bridge that the others were crossing, it was a testament to Ms Swimmers skill that the thrown-together bridge held up under the weight of the group crossing it. In the dustance stood a large temple, which looked like it had once housed soldiers to patrol the wall
-
use the magic of the shield against the enemy Tarrax said to the  grouops defending Tonfon. Its really the only real option' He motioned to the white glowing shield that covered the town.
_
 the heat of the golems was such that only small parts of tem turned black. klava trickled over the area, as blood does to a cut.

[Serris]

(Tonfon)

"Reinforcements have arrived!" Captain Fairchild and the living planes escorted several large more Spirarian troops along with artillery.

"Great!" one of the miners said. "Now all we have to do is deal with those things!" He pointed to the lava golems.

The soldiers got to work setting up an artillery battery to try and break apart the lava golems and let the lava crew freeze the individual pieces of them.

Captain Fairchild dropped a bomb right on top of one of the golems, hoping to provoke it into chasing him into the ocean.

"Wait, the shield vaporized the meteors," another miner said. She recalled watching the meteor bombardment from the Spire. "See if we can force the creatures into the shield!"

--------------

(Endless Wall)

Even in the afternoon, the air was still chilly at this altitude but the group had more important things to deal with.

The temple itself was dilapidated with vines and moss overgrowing its stone facade. Statues of the gods and guardians that the soldiers worshiped were now barely recognizable as works of art. A tattered tapestry wishing good luck for travelers hung over the remains of the door.

Ms. Swimmer carefully opened the door and opened the gem necklace, bathing the interior in a cool white light. Decayed cushions for the worshipers to kneel or sit on lay on the stone floor. An altar on the front had the decayed remains of some food offerings along two incense pots that were filled with ashes.
 
"Classic Tonfonese temple," Karis said. She sniffed the air and detected the ever so faint scent of incense.

"Looks like it's been abandoned for years," Tyrell added as he looked over the ruins. A tarnished statuette of a Tonfonese soldier had been placed next to the door as a guard against evil.

[Nick22]

well, its shelter at any rate' tigress said as she looked around from astride Cynder-W. " reminds me of the dragon temple back home, when I first saw it, at least ' Spyro said ' looks like it was once a place of pilgrimage, but those days are long past" ' give this place a good dusting, and a large  application of soap and water, and it might actually look somewhat presentable" tigeress said. ' theres dozens of these statues all over the place, thee must have been several deities these soldiers and guards prayed to for protection" agumon said, having returned to his lower-level form. the diginmon leader activated his armor's night time features and it glowed bright green allowing him to see in frint of him. ' hopefully theres an exit that leads up the mountain.' He said.
 Skylands walked next to Tigeress looking around as statue after statue passed by, as they went further into the temple. ' maes you wonder how many soldiers were up here at one time?' a bitterly cold gust of wind reached her from somewhere further in and she shivered . flakes of snow soon feel on them, carried by the wind. ' must be snowing outside the temple' spyro said. ' and pretty hard, if the wind can carry it  in this far.  Just stick close everyone, at least those that dont have armor.
-
Passaj
 stripetail reached the covered forge, which had been completely covered with debris as part of the evacuation' the floating zol made a sound as they lifted off the ground, or made contact with the ceilings far above' stripetail moved over the debris with one paw and turned into into a solid mass, with a ring set in the middle so it  could put on, or off, when needed.' with the other paw, he moved the now solid cover off revealing  the glowing  Forge underneath. stripetail set the pair of blades down, one on the right side of the forge , the other on the left. he pickedup the right blade, which was the blade of Westerneese , and placed it in the middle of forge and waited for the helt of the forge to rise enough so that the two pieces could be bonded back together, a simple 'repair' spell would not work on such an ancient, and powerful enchanted blade. it would take patience.

 West Tonfon

 the golenms appproached the shield surrounding the town, the defenders attacks doing little to slow their inexorable march towards the city. there were at least 100 golems in this group, towering over the defenders, who wre scrambling to think of anything to stop them
_
 gabuna was using her ice powers to tamp down a fire that had started in the northeast part of the town. the ground was uneven and rough due to  attempts to seal cracks and close gaps from the volcanic acgtivity taking place below.  She was being driven around by Dixie to deal with fires around the city. stitch was part of the demolition crew.